RxBandit66 wrote:so when are people going to get off of Sid's back about him having an "off" year when it is so plainly obvious that Sid is the most dominant athlete in hockey?

ummm...is anyone still on sid's back? that ship sailed once he started playing well. and are you really taking offense that people were questioning the quality of sid's play early on, when in fact, he wasn't playing close to his potential?

it's becoming evident that both guys are slow starters. health issues have also become a problem for both. so it's pretty pointless to call either of them out when they just showed that they are champions and that they both have been battling nagging injuries throughout most of the season. the people who were jumping to conclusions a few weeks ago about malkin being better are just as bad as people now saying that sid is better and using malkin's short-term stats as support.

this season hasn't proven squat about either guy. all we know is that they are both phenomenal and capable of being the best.

Sid had an injury at the beginning of the season. So did Kunitz who was on his wing. His other winger is a 38 year old veteran who is a slow starter.

I'll defend Sid always to the end. He is the franchise player. In my lifetime, I saw Bonds, Lemieux, Jagr, Roethlisberger, Bettis, etc. and now Sid. Sometimes we take it for granted. Having said that, Sid did not play well for a strtech of games, 6 games with two points or whatever. He was very very bad during that stretch. But now he is playing well. Despite the ebb and flow, he'll lead the league in points once again this season.

And as long as he is a healthy player, I will stand by my statement that he is the game's overall best.

RxBandit66 wrote:so when are people going to get off of Sid's back about him having an "off" year when it is so plainly obvious that Sid is the most dominant athlete in hockey?

ummm...is anyone still on sid's back? that ship sailed once he started playing well. and are you really taking offense that people were questioning the quality of sid's play early on, when in fact, he wasn't playing close to his potential?

it's becoming evident that both guys are slow starters. health issues have also become a problem for both. so it's pretty pointless to call either of them out when they just showed that they are champions and that they both have been battling nagging injuries throughout most of the season. the people who were jumping to conclusions a few weeks ago about malkin being better are just as bad as people now saying that sid is better and using malkin's short-term stats as support.

this season hasn't proven squat about either guy. all we know is that they are both phenomenal and capable of being the best.

Sid had an injury at the beginning of the season. So did Kunitz who was on his wing. His other winger is a 38 year old veteran who is a slow starter.

I'll defend Sid always to the end. He is the franchise player. In my lifetime, I saw Bonds, Lemieux, Jagr, Roethlisberger, Bettis, etc. and now Sid. Sometimes we take it for granted. Having said that, Sid did not play well for a strtech of games, 6 games with two points or whatever. He was very very bad during that stretch. But now he is playing well. Despite the ebb and flow, he'll lead the league in points once again this season.

And as long as he is a healthy player, I will stand by my statement that he is the game's overall best.

so you can have your opinion that sid is better. i, myself, would probably take him 1st overall in a draft if i was starting a team. but i don't think that we should use this 30 game span to base conclusions off of.

In Rx's defense, everytime he starts a thread like this calling out a player, they go on a hot streak.

I say keep em coming.

Players who I have "called out" this season include:

Dupuis (I advocated for his trade/demotion in favor of Bayda following camp), Rupp (three games into the season I wondered why the heck the team signed this guy), Kunitz (prior to his huge 4 point game), Goligoski (prior to the season). So it seems that there's something to this fact that players magically get a hot hand when I make a thread about them.

I have, however, been ripping Fedotenko for several weeks now and nothing has happened. Luck runs out eventually I guess....but I'd love for Geno to make me eat my words once again.....

I think Rupp is a lot better than most of you are giving him credit for. He won't be a consistent 20g guy, but he can at least do some damage. I know he looks like he's 38, but he's only 29/30 years old. I think that throws a lot of people off.

I predict Malkin will finish the season with 244,801,Q45 goals and also invent pepperoni pizza. If he hasn't proven yet he's a world-class player, I don't know what he could possibly do to convince folks.

DocEmrick wrote:I think Rupp is a lot better than most of you are giving him credit for. He won't be a consistent 20g guy, but he can at least do some damage. I know he looks like he's 38, but he's only 29/30 years old. I think that throws a lot of people off.

Rupp has good hands. He has never been given the opportunity to play with talented players and get this many offensive chances. Some guys can convert chances into goals, others cannot. Rupp has the knack for scoring some goals. Why he is not on the powerplay, I'll never know.

He's on pace for 25 G and 66 assists for a total of 91 pts if he doesn't miss anymore games. This is of course ignoring that his production could go up, he could go on a tear, etc. Your calculation is based off games passed this season and not total games played, meaning that Malkin would miss about a dozen more games, which given his history, isn't likely.

Crosby is on pace for 54 G and 56 A for 100 pts if he doesn't miss anymore games.

Take their PPG both to 82 games and they're both on pace for 100.

Malkin and Crosby are 5 and 6 respectively in Points-Per Game at 1.26 and 1.24 behind AO, Thornton, Gaborik, and Kovalchuk. Remember both Crosby and Malkin are having winger problems, while AO and Kovalchuk aren't having center problems, and Thornton is playing with Heatley. Gaborik. . . well he's Gaborik. He scores at a torrid pace than gets injured for 40 games.

I think they're both doing just fine with the wingers they have and injuries and all that. And remember they also tend to ramp up their games in the second half.

And also remember the PP is horrid right now, which has hurt their stats.

RxBandit66 wrote:so when are people going to get off of Sid's back about him having an "off" year when it is so plainly obvious that Sid is the most dominant athlete in hockey?

ummm...is anyone still on sid's back? that ship sailed once he started playing well. and are you really taking offense that people were questioning the quality of sid's play early on, when in fact, he wasn't playing close to his potential?

it's becoming evident that both guys are slow starters. health issues have also become a problem for both. so it's pretty pointless to call either of them out when they just showed that they are champions and that they both have been battling nagging injuries throughout most of the season. the people who were jumping to conclusions a few weeks ago about malkin being better are just as bad as people now saying that sid is better and using malkin's short-term stats as support.

this season hasn't proven squat about either guy. all we know is that they are both phenomenal and capable of being the best.

Sid had an injury at the beginning of the season. So did Kunitz who was on his wing. His other winger is a 38 year old veteran who is a slow starter.

I'll defend Sid always to the end. He is the franchise player. In my lifetime, I saw Bonds, Lemieux, Jagr, Roethlisberger, Bettis, etc. and now Sid. Sometimes we take it for granted. Having said that, Sid did not play well for a strtech of games, 6 games with two points or whatever. He was very very bad during that stretch. But now he is playing well. Despite the ebb and flow, he'll lead the league in points once again this season.

And as long as he is a healthy player, I will stand by my statement that he is the game's overall best.

You'll defend Sid to the end but not Malkin? Because he isn't a franchise player? What?

Yay we've got the thread. All we need now is an espn article and Geno will score 6 hat tricks in a row.

Seriously, by Christmas this thread will be an afterthought. He'll go on an insane streak and will be atop the scoring list. I think Orpik said it best a few weeks ago. No one can go all out every shift like Ovechkin does for a full 82 games. You'll simply wear yourself out for the playoffs, especially with the Olympics this year. It's frustrating for a fan to know that Geno can dominate and isn't. But he won't disappoint for much longer.

Hopefully my thread will bring good juju....I'm glad you're all basically behind the idea of why I did this. But he does have to pick his game up a little and not turn the puck over so much.

He is actually on pace for more goals IF he plays all the games. My number 19 was factoring in the games he missed so far and assuming he would miss that many in the second half of the season.

I still maintain that Geno is trying to do too much. Between Fedotenko and Kunitz, I've seen better hands on a clock. Geno is pressing. At least Bugsy and Sykora were reliable 25-goal guys. Feds and Dupuis have each scored 20 or more in past seasons. If they can't manage that while playing with the game's elite, then they are not worth a combined 3 mil. The team may be better served to go get a 3 mil per year player at the deadline who can score regularly (like Ray Whitney) and put him on one wing and throw a big body on Geno's other wing (Mike Rupp perhaps?). The Malkin-Whitney-Rupp thing would be very effective IMHO.

The way I calculate he is on a pace for 25 goals. He has scored 8 goals in 24 games, or .333 goals/game. Since he missed 7 games it means that he can possibly play in 75 games, barring further injury. 75 X .333 (rounded up) is 25. 19 goals is an extrapolation which would factor in more injury time for 82 games.

Metzer's article is a good read. But I'm not going to give up on the fact its not how many shots Malkin is taking, but the type of shots and the effects that it has on his psyche.

The last slapshot that I can remember Malkin taking was the tying goal vs. Chicago. (I had forgotten that one, thanks to previous poster. That shot apparently hit Letestu's stick, so we will never know of its accuracy, velocity, etc. We will remember that it went to Staal for the tying goal.)

The last few years, Malkin's slapshot has been nothing short of amazing. Its right up there with Ovechkin and Kovalchuk (what's up with the Russian snipers?). Anyway, when you score on a goalie that way, it gives you a very "dominating" feeling. (Personally, I very rarely do it, but when you do, you know it and play better. I play beer league, dek hockey, etc, not NHL in case ... forget it). I'm sticking to my theory that there is something amiss in his shoulder rotation and he's not confident or maybe even comfortable in aiming the laser. Remember Malkin vs. Philly. Head down laser through the keeper? Brings a smile to my face everytime.

That said, Malkin is playing amazing in every other aspect of the gamee. And I hope I'm wrong about his shoulder/elbow/whatever. I hope he's cranking slappers like Pascal Dupuis vs. the Habs on Thursday night. And with that